


Bad Dreams, Worse Memories

by ThatYellowFinch



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Nightmares, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7168196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatYellowFinch/pseuds/ThatYellowFinch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bart's past (future???) brings him nightmares, and worse, panic. Before he left he never thought he'd find comfort hear, with someone who had been, would have been, the source of his fears.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bad Dreams, Worse Memories

_           Dark. It was always dark outside. That didn’t change no matter how much Bart wished for the sun. It was all he could think about as the heavy boot squeezed his head into the ground. Pain erupted from his temples and his cheek as he bit down on it in an attempt not to scream. The boot was removed only to be replaced with a kick to the chin. Blood squirted into his mouth as his body bounced across the coarse dirt like a pebble on a lake. He landed on his back, a rock stabbing into his spine. Trying to pick himself up accomplished nothing but bringing him face to face with his abuser. Gold eyes met green and Bart just barely kept himself from panicking.  _ “Jaime...please…” _ A whimper escaped him as Blue Beetle raised his blade. _

With a jolt, like lightning, Bart shot up in bed. Drenched in sweat and heart racing he struggled to remember where he was when suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. He turned and met brown eyes, recognizing the face caused his panic to spike.

“Get away from me!” He screamed, shoving Jaime off the bed. “Stay away! Stay away!” When did he start crying, or shaking? He retreated to the other side of the bed, pinning himself flat against the wall as he curled into a tight ball. 

“Bart…” Jaime was cautious when picking himself back up, sitting on the edge of the bed and offering his love a hand. “It’s me, not the beetle. I’m me. You just had a nightmare. Please,  _ cariño _ , let me help.” He pleaded.

It was slow coming, but Jaime was patient. It wasn’t the first time Bart had this nightmare, it was unlikely to be the last. Jaime still didn’t know the full extent of what had happened to Bart during his childhood, but he had seen the scars. Like lines on a map etching across Bart’s body. It was apparent to anyone who saw them, which was only Jaime at this point, that the poor boy had been tortured. And it didn’t take long for Jaime to figure out just who had done the torturing.

Slowly Bart began to calm down, taking the hand and letting the older boy pull him into a hug and finally letting him come to rest with his head on Jaime’s chest, listening to the entirely human heart beat. He was still shaking, but he had at least stopped crying for the time being.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” Jaime asked, knowing the answer, just trying to fill the silence.

“No…” Bart’s words were muffled as he buried himself in Jaime’s nightshirt.

The two fell into silence again as a question hung over Jaime’s head. He almost didn’t want to ask it, especially not with Bart’s nightmare in such fresh memory. Still, he had to wonder. “Why are you with me?”

“What?” Bart looked up at him, a confused frown etched across his freckled face.

“You’re scared of the beetle, so much so that you have nightmares so terrifying they wake you up. So why be with me? We’re a package deal, and I just...I don’t understand.”

This time it was Jaime’s turn to panic as silence took over the room again. Surely it shouldn’t take Bart this long to answer.

“You’re not the scarab.” Bart finally said, snuggling in closer. “You heard what happened in my past, your future, and you fought to stop it. You put your life on the line to stop it. You’re...you’re the first actual friend I’ve ever had, and I never thought out of all the outcomes of going into the past that we could be friends and...more...I never want you to stop being Jaime. Not just because of what the scarab is, or what Reach is. I really like who you are.”

It felt like floating with every word, light in the darkness that had been Bart’s life before. Putting it into words was hard, admitting it to Jaime was even harder. Yet, it felt better now that he said it, his heartache fading and being replaced with the sense of joy that Bart got everytime Jaime called him  _ cariño _ .

Jaime himself couldn’t stop smiling, pulling his boy even closer to him as he laid back down and wrapped them both in their blankets. “I love you too,  _ cariño _ . Now go back to sleep, I’ll be here when you wake up. And I’ll still be me.”

And lying safely tucked between Jaime and the blankets Bart believed it. He let himself calm down, shoulders untensing, heart rate slowing, as he focused on Jaime’s breathing, his scent, and his heartbeat. Where there had been fear in Bart’s past there was now peace. Not at all what he had expected, but he wouldn’t change that for anything.


End file.
